


A Brighter Place

by BrightTerror



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Gil is the best father, Hurt/Comfort, I like Eve but i do not ship her with malcolm, Malcolm Bright Whump, Suicidal Thoughts, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 15:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21655132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightTerror/pseuds/BrightTerror
Summary: The missing scene after the ending of 1x9. What happens after malcolm drops the knife and scared Eve?
Relationships: Eve Blanchard & Malcolm Bright, Gil Arroyo & Malcolm Bright, Malcolm Bright & Jessica Whitly
Comments: 17
Kudos: 128





	A Brighter Place

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote these a few days ago but wasnt sure if i should post, but after tonights episode I changed my mind.   
Please read the tag warnings before.   
I hope you like it! This is not beta read, sorry for any typos.

Eve had woken up when she felt Malcolm leaving her side and felt cold. She sleepily opened her eyes and was going back to sleep when she heard Malcolm talk in the kitchen. 

“What do you want.” Malcolm said softly yet determined. 

Eve frowned. Was Malcolm talking to her? Who was he talking to? 

“I’m  _ trying _ .” Malcolm said desperately. 

Eve stood up, bringing the blanket to cover herself. She saw Malcolm was facing his bed and had his hand stretched like he did when he was talking to some murderer. 

“Bright?” Eve called softly.

Malcolm didn’t even hear her. He turned around and before Eve could process anything Malcolm was gasping for breath and it seemed as if someone was trying to choke  _ him.  _

Eve flinched, she didn’t know what was happening and didn’t know how to help. Before she could do anything, Malcolm, with great effort, grabbed a knife from the kitchen table. “What are you doing?” She said loudly and panicked. 

Malcolm, knife in hand, came closer to her. Eve noticed he didn’t seem aware of what was happening and that freaked her out more. 

“Oh my god, Bright, Bright, Wake up!” Eve shouted as she hunched next to the couch to take cover. Malcolm was looking towards her but not  _ at  _ her, he didn’t even see her. He was violently thrashing the air attacking nothing. She was terrified, and that was an understatement.

Malcolm’s eyes widened in pure agony and he huffed in a breath. He let go of the knife and it fell a couple of inches away from Eve. 

Eve’s face was full of terror and she was breathing rapidly. 

_____

_ No, no, no, no...  _ Malcolm thought as he processed what happened. He could see how frightened Eve was. He couldn’t even begin to describe how horrible he felt. He could have hurt her. It dawned on him; he could have  _ killed _ her. “I’m sorry.” He whimpered. He was about to cry. He was so, so, sorry. Sadness and guilted clouded his features and he held in a sob. “I’m sorry.” Malcolm curled his hands near his torso. 

Eve didn’t move. She was still breathing quickly. She didn’t fully blame him, on the one hand she understood he had some demons of his own and figured the outcome of tonight had to do with it. But on the other hand, she was scared out of her mind considering she almost died. She didn’t trust herself to speak, she  _ couldn’t _ . 

Malcolm saw Eve curled next to the sofa in the floor and he backtracked a few steps to give her space. He kept repeating the same words “I’m sorry.” And he meant every single one of them. His voice was dripping with pain, shame, guilt. His thoughts were going a thousand miles an hour each of them getting worse and more intrusive. He couldn’t trust himself anymore, not around people. 

Eve started to move a minute after. She slowly put on her clothes, whole body still shaking. Once she gathered herself and calmed a bit, she paid more attention to Malcolm who was sitting next to his bed, on the floor, hunched over and curled up, hugging his knees. She knew he was not okay; she could tell he really didn’t mean what happened. Even though she still was scared she had many questions about him, about exactly what the hell just happened to him. “Bright?” She said barely above a whisper. 

Malcolm tensed and hugged his knees closer. 

“Can you hear me?” She asked softly, she didn’t want to go near him and spooking him. He didn’t have any knives anymore, but she wasn’t risking it. 

Malcolm started trembling, he was silently crying. “I’m sorry.”

Eve knew she could hear him. “I’m coming over there, okay?” She whispered. 

“NO!” He cried. “Stay away. I’ll hurt you, I’ll hurt anyone who comes close.” 

Eve’s heart broke as she heard his words. “It’s okay.” She said softly. She really wasn’t okay and was going to need to make an appointment with a therapist after tonight, but she knew that she had to do something. 

Malcolm lifted his head and looked at her. His eyes were puffy from crying. Even though it was dim, since none of them turned on the lights, she could still see his face. He shook his head. “I could have killed you, Eve?! You get that right? Why are you being nice? You should be screaming at me, telling me how crazy I am! I deserve it!” He trembled. “You need to leave, just go.” He pleaded. 

Eve backed away slowly, looking at him with a combination of pity and fear. She got her things and left in a rush. 

Malcolm’s cries were not silent anymore. 

________

He didn’t know how long he stayed sitting there. He hadn’t felt this bad since his father was arrested. It was a completely different feeling but the intensity, the heart wrenching feeling was the same. 

He realised he couldn’t be near people. What if he hurt someone? What if it was Gil? His mother? Ainsley? He could hurt the team or Edrisa? He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he did. He couldn’t risk his loved one’s safety. 

He stood up and stumbled to his phone. He sent a message to Gil to inform him he was going to quit effective immediately. He didn’t dare to tell his mother anything, she would figure out anyway as she always did. 

He thought of leaving the city, move somewhere else. Sure, he never was one for running away but this was different. He chose against it though; he could not trust himself anymore. What if he hallucinated again and he was in public and hurt someone? He texted Gabrielle telling her that her Freudian analysis of him was wrong and that she should be careful to her other patients, so she didn’t commit the same wronged analysis.

Shortly after, Malcolm received a call from his mother. He hung up and sent her to voicemail. He figured Eve notified his mother and wondered how much she told her…

A few minutes and a few missed calls from his mother later, Gil called him. Malcolm figured either he received his quitting message or Jessica had contacted him. He knew he should answer to tell them everything was fine, but he couldn’t even bring his voice to speak without trembling and crying. So, he sent Gil to voicemail too. 

He looked around his apartment and saw the knife was still pinned to the floor. Looking at it, he winced and scooted further away from it. Maybe his father was right, they are the same… that meant he was dangerous. 

His breathing quickened as his thoughts raced. He didn’t know what he should do now, he wasn’t good for anyone, all he did was hurt people. He hurt Dani when he first met her because of his night terrors at the precinct, he was an inconvenience to his mother, being the constant reminder of his father especially with his job and his visits to Martin, it wore Jessica down. And Gil... he hurt him too, always bothering Gil ever since he was a kid, interrupting his daily life all the time; Gil was the one who stitched him up after school and had to deal with him when he couldn’t sleep for days, he was the one Malcolm always went to when he got in trouble or wanted advice and now that he was working with him Gil was constantly worrying and stressing about him. 

Then there was Eve, who he almost killed… they would be better off without him... maybe he should just end it all, after all he did, it’s what he deserved. Maybe this way he could keep his loved ones safe…. Maybe he should get his pills, he had enough, and it would do the job…

Only then, did he realised that at some point in his spiral of thoughts had he moved. He had his bottle of pills in his hand and wondered when he had grabbed it. He was tired, it wasn’t the usual weariness from not sleeping but he was exhausted in general, he could feel it seeping through his bones. He just wanted it to stop; The nightmares, the memories, the guilt, the pain. 

His legs gave out and he sat on the floor leaning on the wall near his bed. 

His thoughts were interrupted by knocks on the door. He was startled but didn’t move. He didn’t care who it was, he wasn’t going to move from there. 

More knocks followed by a voice. “Malcolm, it’s Gil, I know you are awake so open up.” 

Malcolm noticed by Gil’s voice that the man was worried. He hated the fact that he was the one who caused it.

A few more knocks went by before Malcolm heard the door being unlocked. He cursed under his breath; he had forgotten he gave Gil a spare key after he changed the locks. 

_______

After Gil knocked a few times he became extremely worried. Something was wrong with his kid. 

He had woken up by a call from a very frantic Jessica. From what he understood, Eve had called her telling her about Malcolm and something along the lines that someone should check up on him. To be honest, Gil had just barely woken up and Jessica was rambling a lot to make sense. He only fully woke up, alerted, at the moment she had mentioned Malcolm. 

Then after the call, he had checked his messages and saw he had received a text from Malcolm, which made him panic. His kid told him he was quitting; something was terribly wrong. 

When Malcolm didn’t open up or showed any signs he was inside, Gil took out his spare key and opened the locks. 

He walked inside and what he saw made his heart break. He saw Malcolm was hurled into a corner, his face hidden between his knees, he was trembling and had his hands balled into fists as when he did when he tried to control his trembling. He looked miserable. “Malcolm?” Gil said softly. 

Malcolm slowly looked up and Gil could see the puffiness and redness of his eyes. His face was wet from tears. “Go away.” He said, not as a threat or with anger but pleaded. 

Gil frowned. “I’m not going to go away, I’m here for you, kid.” He carefully stepped forward to Malcolm, the kid clearly needed someone to be there for him. 

Malcolm flinched as Gil stepped forward and shook his head. “Don’t. I’ll only hurt you. I don’t want to hurt anyone again.”

“What happened, kiddo?” He said with no judgment in his tone. He knew Malcolm wasn’t making much sense, Gil knew him and knew something worse than a night terror had occurred. Looking around the room for any signs of what happened, he saw a knife was embedded in the wooden floor, he was going to mention it when Malcolm spoke.

“I could have hurt Eve. I shouldn’t have let her in, I shouldn’t have let her stay over. My nightmares have only gotten worse, I should have known better…” he let out a pained laugh which sounded more like a sob. “I thought I could distinguish what’s real and what’s not.” He sniffed. “But she looked so real, the girl… she tried to kill me, so I grabbed a knife to defend myself… I woke from a nightmare to see my worst fear come true, Gil. I was inches away from Eve and the knife was about to touch her… I could have  _ killed  _ her.” He said, snapping his eyes shut. “That's why you need to leave...I’m broken.”

Gil’s heart shattered. “Oh, Bright… you aren’t going to hurt me, I know you like family. And _you._ _aren’t. broken._ You are brave, wonderful and caring and you deserve the world.” 

“No.” Malcolm cried, looking at him with tears from his eyes. “I’m just like my father, I’m a monster, I damage everyone around me.” He sniffed and used the back of his hand to remove a tear. 

Gil noticed Malcolm was holding a mostly full bottle of his medication. His brain short circuited and he connected the dots, his heart skipped a beat in realization. “Kid, why are you holding that bottle of medication.” He gulped, knowing the answer but hoping and praying that he was wrong. 

“I just want it to be over.” Malcolm whimpered. “I’m tired, of everything. I try and try to fight what my father did, to make some good in the world, I try to save everyone as much as I can but it all backfires. I poison everything around me, you were all better when I was away, Mother, Ains,  _ you _ … Everything would be better if I were gone…the problem is me; I’m broken, I can’t be fixed.” He said simply, his voice becoming worriedly monotone as he finished. 

Gil let out a shaky breath, he couldn’t stand to see his kid like this. He cleared his throat and used his stern voice like he did when he wasn’t messing around. “Listen to me, Malcolm Bright. You are nothing like your father, you will  _ never _ be, and I can assure you that you do not damage or poison people, you  _ save  _ them, I can swear that on my life. You  _ saved _ my life Bright, I would be dead if it wasn’t for you, so don’t go spilling that crap about you.” Gil saw Malcolm wasn’t as tense as before and he decided to close the space between them. He kneeled on the floor next to Malcolm, slowly took the bottle of pills from his trembling hand and engulfed him in a hug. “You can’t be fixed  _ because  _ you are  **not ** broken. You aren’t a problem; you are a blessing and the best son I could ask for. You make the world a brighter place.”

“You really believe that?” Malcolm was clutching to him like a support line, he had stopped crying and was sniffling. He looked at Gil with his blue, bright eyes and it reminded the cop of when Malcolm was a child, he looked so young and unguarded. 

“I couldn’t be more confident in anything else.” 

Gil wanted nothing more than to take all the pain from his kid away and wrap him in a blanket of safety. He knew he couldn’t, but he was sure as hell he was going to try. 

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Please comment your thoughts! Should i make another chapter of this or nah? or should i just stick to oneshots? 
> 
> I headcannon that Malcolm is suicidal ever since the first episode and this last few episodes strenghtened my headcanon so i had to write this. If you are feeling like this please talk to someone to get some support, you are not alone. 
> 
> I love y'all!  
My tumbl: @Sherlock-freud in case you want to come yell with me at the finale.


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